SwansProudly
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A hard fought contest against the Hawks at the MCG but we go down by 17-points.
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Autopsy Round 02 Swans defeated by Hawthorn
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So am i
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I feel like it will be a straight swap, Cleary for Heeney
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Just bumped up the ol' bye thread
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I don't deal in Hyperbole this early in the season.
Unfortunately the footy media is fuelled by it.
Then the fans expand on it.
IMO there are lots of coaches and footy departments still finding their way up to round 6/8. The season just starts so early now and its disjointed AF.
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McCartin fined for staging? https://www.afl.com.au/news/1480572/match-review-hawks-forward-learns-his-fate-for-heavy-tackle
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Nine Things I Learned This Week, Round 2 edition. (Yes, even in a loss. No fair-weather supporters 'round 'ere.)
1. The Swans missed Harry Cunningham
This is by no means a knock on Sam Wicks, who I think is doing a good job in the same role that Cunningham typically plays (though I do think Wicks is a little down on his form compared to last year so far.) But the Swans' back-line features some of the most nervy, jittery, fumbly players in the whole team - McCartin, Melican, Mills, Rampe (these days), Blakey, Bice, Wicks... They're prone to some real brain-farts and skill errors when under pressure, which is a bit of a problem, because defenders generally need to be good under pressure. In that sense, the one who is missed the most is Cunningham, who is usually the calmest head, often winning steadying possessions that help us rebound effectively. Without any of that composure, the Swans too often last night simply couldn't maintain possession or control the play from our defensive 50 at all.
2. The talls failed us - badly
There are the numbers that tell a story - 13 marks inside 50 for Hawthorn to our 4 marks inside 50; 11 contested marks for Hawthorn to our 7 contested marks. 35-year-old Dane Rampe being the only Swan to take multiple contested marks, Amartey failing to take any, the woefully-out-of-form Mitch Lewis taking more for Hawthorn than any of our forwards did. It tells a bleak story about how we weren't able to gain enough ascendency in the air. But then there are the visuals, and it's so much worse. Charlie Curnow being over-worked by Barrass. McDonald failing to crash the packs. Grundy grabbing at incoming marks like his fingers were rocks, Melican and McCartin having bad fumbles and dropped marks. All over the ground, our talls looked out of their depth and produced inept effort after inept effort in aerial contests. All it seemed to do was empower the opposition's talls - Barrass, Battle, Sicily, Meek, Chol, Gunston, you name it - with the confidence that "yep... we've got 'em."
3. Our smalls weren't much better
It was a scene that seemed to occur so much on my TV screen last night that I thought it was the AFL remake of Groundhog Day. The ball flying into our forward line, straight to opposition defenders, and those opposition defenders having all the time in the world to exit our defensive 50. At one point, a Hawks defender - Impey, I want to say? - was running along near our goal square. He was almost waiting for someone to come at him, expecting someone to come at him. And they never did. He took a lazy bounce and then passed it off to his teammate 30-40 metres away who did the same thing. Where was the pressure? Where was the desire to man-up? Where was the closing speed? Where was the tackling pressure? Where were the players blocking corridors of space so Hawthorn couldn't move it? It was all missing, in a sadly all-too-familiar display of lacklustre pressure.
4. The coaches don't trust our depth
A statement from Dean Cox & co. to demonstrate that the Swans weren't fearful of life without Gulden & Heeney, but were actually embracing that challenge, might've been to start Caiden Cleary at the opening centre bounce. Even if he never attended another one for the rest of the game, it could've been a signal of intent - that we were going to embrace the opportunity to utilise who else we have at our disposal. Instead, Cleary spent much of the first quarter on the bench as clearly the 23rd man, and only saw one centre bounce for the rest of the game, whilst Corey Warner returned to his usual spot in the senior team, off a half forward flank. These personnel decisions aren't necessarily the wrong decisions, or decisions worthy of criticism. But they are telling of a coaching staff who didn't trust their 22nd and 23rd men to play any sort of major roles last night.
5. The supporting act's finished now. You're on in fifteen, Charlie.
The high-functioning scoring-power of our forward line in the first two weeks allowed the highly-prized recruit Charlie Curnow to perhaps ease into the season. He wasn't dominant, and last week, he arguably wasn't even good. But he was useful in allowing others off the chain - creating space for mids to hit the scoreboard, providing contests for smalls to crumb off, taking the opposition's best defender so Amartey could thrive. But last night was the first time where none of those things happened. There wasn't the space for the mids to be potent inside 50 like they usually are. The smalls weren't working hard enough or getting into the right places to be involved. And Amartey was well-beaten throughout the night. The house lights went down and the spotlight was on Curnow to make his mark, and other than a few half-chances early, he failed - dismally. The pressure will be on him now. The time for taking a back-seat is over. He's got to prove why he can be the main man.
6. Justin McInerney needs to be sequestered from any and all hype
If you're a glass half-empty kind of person, there's potential to look at McInerney's three performances in 2026 so far and see a pattern emerging - great in the first week, good in the second week, average in the third week. It could be mildly alarming, given that we have seen this trend with McInerney before - a great performance or two, followed by a slow descend into frustrating under-performance. It is the only reason that he hasn't been able to take that next step as a player so far in his career. But I think this year can be different for McInerney, and a key to it will be keeping him insulated from the external hype. He was talked up all week as someone who would need to stand up in Gulden's absence, and he failed to do that. I think if he can see himself as a dark horse, someone the competition don't see coming, someone who is slept on compared to other big names in the team, then I think he will play like he has a real point to prove. And that has typically been when he has produced his best footy.
7. Swans must sort out their clearance situation
There is much debate as to the importance of clearances, and as with anything, it is always about quality over quantity. So far in 2026, the Swans have been about quality over quantity. We are not exactly piling the clearances on, but the ones we are getting are clean ones, to free players, out the front of stoppages, and even straight out of the centre like an avalanche. It's the kind of stuff Swans fans have dreamed of for years. We just aren't getting anywhere near enough of them, and it hurt us last night when the Hawks started to do so. It was only a matter of time before someone, from some team, was damaging enough to make us pay via that source. We've potentially finally settled on an approach that makes our clearances dangerous and potent. The next step will be figuring out an approach that means we can get more of it.
8. It wasn't just about Gulden & Heeney
I've made it to number eight on this list without really getting into the nitty-gritty of Gulden and Heeney's absence. It objectively hurt us. In a game where everyone was below par, even if those two played and were below par, their "below par" is still capable of enough moments of class & brilliance that it could've made up for the 17-point deficit at the final siren. But we could've won without them through ways that have nothing to do with Gulden & Heeney. If the aforementioned talls did a better job at competing in the air, we could've controlled possession so much more. If the aforementioned clearance situation was a little more prolific from our end, we could've scored more heavily from that source. If the aforementioned McInerney had a better game, he could've found the targets that others struggled to. If the aforementioned defenders were cleaner, we could've set up for our run-and-gun game from the back half so much better.
9. Everyone has upside
To end on a positive note, and touching a little more on the point from number 8, no one was at their best last night. Players who looked capable with the ball didn't get enough of it. Players who got a lot of the ball did no real damage with it. Some of the dumbest mistakes some of our players will ever make in their careers happened last night. There are issues for sure, and I think they are more plentiful than I think many fans hoped and believed. But there is still no reason that last night can't be one of the worst games we play all year. And I think if that is the case, then we will be OK.
1. The Swans missed Harry Cunningham
This is by no means a knock on Sam Wicks, who I think is doing a good job in the same role that Cunningham typically plays (though I do think Wicks is a little down on his form compared to last year so far.) But the Swans' back-line features some of the most nervy, jittery, fumbly players in the whole team - McCartin, Melican, Mills, Rampe (these days), Blakey, Bice, Wicks... They're prone to some real brain-farts and skill errors when under pressure, which is a bit of a problem, because defenders generally need to be good under pressure. In that sense, the one who is missed the most is Cunningham, who is usually the calmest head, often winning steadying possessions that help us rebound effectively. Without any of that composure, the Swans too often last night simply couldn't maintain possession or control the play from our defensive 50 at all.
2. The talls failed us - badly
There are the numbers that tell a story - 13 marks inside 50 for Hawthorn to our 4 marks inside 50; 11 contested marks for Hawthorn to our 7 contested marks. 35-year-old Dane Rampe being the only Swan to take multiple contested marks, Amartey failing to take any, the woefully-out-of-form Mitch Lewis taking more for Hawthorn than any of our forwards did. It tells a bleak story about how we weren't able to gain enough ascendency in the air. But then there are the visuals, and it's so much worse. Charlie Curnow being over-worked by Barrass. McDonald failing to crash the packs. Grundy grabbing at incoming marks like his fingers were rocks, Melican and McCartin having bad fumbles and dropped marks. All over the ground, our talls looked out of their depth and produced inept effort after inept effort in aerial contests. All it seemed to do was empower the opposition's talls - Barrass, Battle, Sicily, Meek, Chol, Gunston, you name it - with the confidence that "yep... we've got 'em."
3. Our smalls weren't much better
It was a scene that seemed to occur so much on my TV screen last night that I thought it was the AFL remake of Groundhog Day. The ball flying into our forward line, straight to opposition defenders, and those opposition defenders having all the time in the world to exit our defensive 50. At one point, a Hawks defender - Impey, I want to say? - was running along near our goal square. He was almost waiting for someone to come at him, expecting someone to come at him. And they never did. He took a lazy bounce and then passed it off to his teammate 30-40 metres away who did the same thing. Where was the pressure? Where was the desire to man-up? Where was the closing speed? Where was the tackling pressure? Where were the players blocking corridors of space so Hawthorn couldn't move it? It was all missing, in a sadly all-too-familiar display of lacklustre pressure.
4. The coaches don't trust our depth
A statement from Dean Cox & co. to demonstrate that the Swans weren't fearful of life without Gulden & Heeney, but were actually embracing that challenge, might've been to start Caiden Cleary at the opening centre bounce. Even if he never attended another one for the rest of the game, it could've been a signal of intent - that we were going to embrace the opportunity to utilise who else we have at our disposal. Instead, Cleary spent much of the first quarter on the bench as clearly the 23rd man, and only saw one centre bounce for the rest of the game, whilst Corey Warner returned to his usual spot in the senior team, off a half forward flank. These personnel decisions aren't necessarily the wrong decisions, or decisions worthy of criticism. But they are telling of a coaching staff who didn't trust their 22nd and 23rd men to play any sort of major roles last night.
5. The supporting act's finished now. You're on in fifteen, Charlie.
The high-functioning scoring-power of our forward line in the first two weeks allowed the highly-prized recruit Charlie Curnow to perhaps ease into the season. He wasn't dominant, and last week, he arguably wasn't even good. But he was useful in allowing others off the chain - creating space for mids to hit the scoreboard, providing contests for smalls to crumb off, taking the opposition's best defender so Amartey could thrive. But last night was the first time where none of those things happened. There wasn't the space for the mids to be potent inside 50 like they usually are. The smalls weren't working hard enough or getting into the right places to be involved. And Amartey was well-beaten throughout the night. The house lights went down and the spotlight was on Curnow to make his mark, and other than a few half-chances early, he failed - dismally. The pressure will be on him now. The time for taking a back-seat is over. He's got to prove why he can be the main man.
6. Justin McInerney needs to be sequestered from any and all hype
If you're a glass half-empty kind of person, there's potential to look at McInerney's three performances in 2026 so far and see a pattern emerging - great in the first week, good in the second week, average in the third week. It could be mildly alarming, given that we have seen this trend with McInerney before - a great performance or two, followed by a slow descend into frustrating under-performance. It is the only reason that he hasn't been able to take that next step as a player so far in his career. But I think this year can be different for McInerney, and a key to it will be keeping him insulated from the external hype. He was talked up all week as someone who would need to stand up in Gulden's absence, and he failed to do that. I think if he can see himself as a dark horse, someone the competition don't see coming, someone who is slept on compared to other big names in the team, then I think he will play like he has a real point to prove. And that has typically been when he has produced his best footy.
7. Swans must sort out their clearance situation
There is much debate as to the importance of clearances, and as with anything, it is always about quality over quantity. So far in 2026, the Swans have been about quality over quantity. We are not exactly piling the clearances on, but the ones we are getting are clean ones, to free players, out the front of stoppages, and even straight out of the centre like an avalanche. It's the kind of stuff Swans fans have dreamed of for years. We just aren't getting anywhere near enough of them, and it hurt us last night when the Hawks started to do so. It was only a matter of time before someone, from some team, was damaging enough to make us pay via that source. We've potentially finally settled on an approach that makes our clearances dangerous and potent. The next step will be figuring out an approach that means we can get more of it.
8. It wasn't just about Gulden & Heeney
I've made it to number eight on this list without really getting into the nitty-gritty of Gulden and Heeney's absence. It objectively hurt us. In a game where everyone was below par, even if those two played and were below par, their "below par" is still capable of enough moments of class & brilliance that it could've made up for the 17-point deficit at the final siren. But we could've won without them through ways that have nothing to do with Gulden & Heeney. If the aforementioned talls did a better job at competing in the air, we could've controlled possession so much more. If the aforementioned clearance situation was a little more prolific from our end, we could've scored more heavily from that source. If the aforementioned McInerney had a better game, he could've found the targets that others struggled to. If the aforementioned defenders were cleaner, we could've set up for our run-and-gun game from the back half so much better.
9. Everyone has upside
To end on a positive note, and touching a little more on the point from number 8, no one was at their best last night. Players who looked capable with the ball didn't get enough of it. Players who got a lot of the ball did no real damage with it. Some of the dumbest mistakes some of our players will ever make in their careers happened last night. There are issues for sure, and I think they are more plentiful than I think many fans hoped and believed. But there is still no reason that last night can't be one of the worst games we play all year. And I think if that is the case, then we will be OK.
I’ll have the West Coast preview up on Sunday.
The Blue Max
Drag racing blogger.
Absolutely ridiculous. Yet the bloke initiating completely unnecessary contact for the sake of it gets nothing.....
The game is bonkers.
crankygeese
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Glad we had this kind of game early in the season and can now spend two weeks working on it.
Without Heeney and Gulden, we need to get more composed going inside 50. Far too often we bombed it in the F50, and we got what we deserved. When we did try to lower the eyes and hit a target, we were going at full pace and would just miss a target because we were hurried.
We need to figure out how to move the ball forward when teams stop the quick handball chains. The Hawks pressure was elite, and that forced us into hurried handballs and hack kicks out. Rather than bombing it long up the line, we should really look to switch across the field and make the most of our kicking ability. Move defenders out of their setup and then change the angle of attack.
We need to deal with pressure a lot better, so often the blind handballs and hack kicks would just turn the ball over or put a teammate under increasing pressure. We need to study how the Bulldogs and Giants handball out of the contest into space. They're some of the best at it.
All things we need to learn, and I'm glad we've got the opportunity to learn them now with two weeks to work on it, rather than late in the season when we don't have that time. This is clearly the game style Cox is going for, and it's good to see he's got a style that is great when it works, now he needs to figure out how to deal with when opposition try to deny that style.
Without Heeney and Gulden, we need to get more composed going inside 50. Far too often we bombed it in the F50, and we got what we deserved. When we did try to lower the eyes and hit a target, we were going at full pace and would just miss a target because we were hurried.
We need to figure out how to move the ball forward when teams stop the quick handball chains. The Hawks pressure was elite, and that forced us into hurried handballs and hack kicks out. Rather than bombing it long up the line, we should really look to switch across the field and make the most of our kicking ability. Move defenders out of their setup and then change the angle of attack.
We need to deal with pressure a lot better, so often the blind handballs and hack kicks would just turn the ball over or put a teammate under increasing pressure. We need to study how the Bulldogs and Giants handball out of the contest into space. They're some of the best at it.
All things we need to learn, and I'm glad we've got the opportunity to learn them now with two weeks to work on it, rather than late in the season when we don't have that time. This is clearly the game style Cox is going for, and it's good to see he's got a style that is great when it works, now he needs to figure out how to deal with when opposition try to deny that style.
Stop taking 1 and 1 and getting 875. Read the actual words on the page, not the words you think are on the page or the conclusions you wish to infer from something that isn't there.
Where have I said only Rowy needs more strings to his bow? Nowhere. I'm happy to make comments about other players when we are talking about other players. Within the context of this thread, we have been talking about Rowbottom.
Where have I said he is worthy of trading? All I said was I can understand why they entertained the thought (If rumours are correct that they did, and I haven't seen anyone say he wasn't potentially on the table).
I've been one of rowy's biggest defenders over the journey. If you are that desperate, trawl through the archives of comments/posts (I assume Bigfooty has some function for that) and you'll see it. But we need to be getting more consistency in more parts of the game than just tackling and pressure from a senior member of the midfield group who is approaching 150 games, if we want to get anywhere near winning anything.
As for the condescending bullshit tone of your last paragraph, you are better than that. I'll add to the conversation about other players when we are talking in detail about other players. Stop inferring that just because we are talking about Rowbottom in depth within these comments that it is anything but my reaction to other comments made in this thread, rather than some imagined grand campaign you have in your head.
Anyway, whatever. Have a good weekend ahead.
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That's very fair.
I apologise if it seemed like I was being condescending. I will admit I get heated on this subject and I think it is less to do with Rowbottom himself (I have been in the trenches on this one far longer than the last 24 hours) and more to do with my overall frustration that I feel like effort and tackling are as big issues as any we have as a team. I feel we need more Rowbottoms, not to trade the only one we've got, so it feels like I am watching a different Swans team to many others, and that can be frustrating, but it's no excuse for being snappy. So once again apologies.
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That McCartin staging offense irritates the **** out of me. Yes 100% should be done for staging, but.......they never ping anyone else....if is his name was Alex Rance or Darcy Moore they wouldn't of done him......where's the consistency for example you got all these small forwards like the much jacked over Watson, Ginivan plus multiple others including some of our own flopping around like they been shot every 3rd or 4th contest, where are their fines?
School night and then by the time Metro completely ****s up their train schedule, it was nearly 2 hours to get the usually one hour home. Thursday night footy is great the it's not your team involved.
And then we see McCartin get fined for staging after a clear and forceful shove direct to the upper sternum. Meanwhile Chol piledrives Blakey's head into the ground and also throws himself forward in the marking contest with minimal contact and he gets rewarded with frees for both. I've said it before. As a club, we are cowardly when it comes to standing up to the AFL.
The little ****ing moron says it was cans, it was bottle. Said it was coke zero, it was a coke. Says he was giving it to them telling them to go home early..... the final siren had already blown. The bloke is an intellectual midget.Does anyone know what happened here? I didn't see anything on the TV coverage...
Hawks livewire accuses fans of throwing cans onto MCG
Hawthorn's Nick Watson says Sydney Swans supporters threw cans at him after the Hawks defeated the Swans on Thursday night.www.abc.net.au
Although on staging (not that particular one) but can Cox give the playing group a ****ing clip about playing for frees, more times than not its actually detrimental.
We're not the only club guilty of it, but we are probably among the top 5 or 6 teams for it.
Shits me, go get the contest the ball dont throw your arms out asking for a free while the ball bobbles away to the oppo advantage and you could've stopped it.
Our players acting is ****ing atrocious aswell, the ump never falls for it, you'd think you'd stop doing it by themselves without needing to be told.
We're not the only club guilty of it, but we are probably among the top 5 or 6 teams for it.
Shits me, go get the contest the ball dont throw your arms out asking for a free while the ball bobbles away to the oppo advantage and you could've stopped it.
Our players acting is ****ing atrocious aswell, the ump never falls for it, you'd think you'd stop doing it by themselves without needing to be told.
All good mate - its been one of those weeks I think and we are all frustrated.
And don't worry - I have plenty in the barrel for other players too when the time comes lol. And in the case of Rowy, its only because I think there is a whole lot more potential there that, for whatever reason, we aren't seeing, and I really want to see him get to the level that I think is achievable.
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